Mamaleek Stun With The Experimental And Trailblazing 2018 Full Length ‘Out Of Time’

There may be nothing like the 2018 Mamaleek LP, Out Of Time. Pressing play on the record leaves the listener wondering what on earth they’re listening to if they’re unprepared, but the band’s shot towards a new height of experimentation lands perfectly. Rather than getting lost under the weight of its own ambitions, Out Of Time maintains substance. You’re (most likely) not going to easily confuse this record for anything else or easily forget about it in general.

It’s an incredibly memorable sonic experience that is unlike that of a normal record. Thanks to elements including liberal sampling from, it seems, across decades and countries, Out Of Time sounds more like a movie than it does a purely two dimensional sonic experience. At times, it feels like the listener has opened up a portal to some other world — the question, though, that helps drive the record is what exactly that world actually is. The uncertainty inherent in each track over what’s going to happen next keeps the listener at attention and adds to the unique nature of the record.

Mamaleek, via Out Of Time, feel like they’ve worked to liberate music from at least some of its traditional confines. Instead of sticking to familiar, catchy, melodic ideas drawn from either the pop or the rock and metal world, they’ve transformed the world at large into a living musical organism. The record can be the soundtrack to your life, in a sense, if you let it in. Just like with real life, there are layers upon layers to what’s going on, and that keeps the record going, “alive,” and dynamic.

Different listeners may have different experiences with Out Of Time, and not just when it comes to whether they think it’s “good” or not. The record’s many elements including metallic harshness and soft flowing instrumentation provide different “characters” for people to latch onto. Turning on Out Of Time, a listener can pay close attention and “think about the music,” or they can let it play in the background. What remains difficult to do, though, is escape the record’s markedly pointed nature.

5/5 Stars

Listen below via Bandcamp.